M.I.A.
So it has been a while since I blogged... I know... I am starting to become a slacker. The deal is that so much has been going on I have not had any time to be able to write. Work was crazy busy as I was wrapping up things to be able to leave for Honduras, my fraternity Formal and Awards banquet was the weekend before Honduras, and then on my return I was swamped with work at Albion and also with WRGA because our WRGLC is next weekend! Man it is busy... so here is the recap.

Formal was awesome! Each year my fraternity district hosts a regional formal for our ten chapters and gives out district awards. I was the chair of the event this year, second year in a row, and fourth time out of six formals that I was on the committee. We had the event at the Double Tree in Novi, MI and it was great. We had over 100 people attend, 20+ hotel rooms, and a great time. The hotel said we were the best behaved fraternity they ever had! Now I am working with a couple schools who are working on proposals for Formal 2007 and no... I will not be on the committee... just helping. We had Brothers came as far as California, we had three candidates for our next national board of directors, and our current national president. Our district alumni association announced that I will be the new chair of our association and help rebuild the group and then hand it over when I become a member of our national board of directors (I am running unopposed).

Heather was my tall date.

My chapter was well represented.

Rudy from my chapter won the Commitment to Education award. It is the third time an Epsilon Brother won.

Our national president presented me the Fraternal Commitment Award, it is the highest award a Brother can receive.

So the Honduras trip... what can I say, it was amazing. I was able to enjoy it even more since it was my second time there and I knew the country a little. We had a great list of service projects during our time at the mission, and the side trip was a ton of fun. This year we had a group of 12 going (11 students and me) so it was bigger then last year. We stayed at the same mission, but this year we got to do a lot more with the children. Our morning service project was still a lot of work.... carrying rocks, mixing cement, picking up trash, etc. What made it better was in the afternoons we got to plan out fun activities instead of just playing games all afternoon. We did art projects, had a library reading day, played games, and planned a St. Patty's festival for the kids. It was great! Not to mention we got to go to a soccer game one afternoon.

Our group in the courtyard of the mission. Last year we helped plant a lot of the flowers you see here.

Tuesday afternoon art project.

Reading books with the kids.

We played basketball, football and of course soccer.

The kids were so much fun.

Our St. Patty's Day Party!

The Comayagua Burros! We really got into the game..

It was a good game... hard fight to the end. 0-0.

Carrying rocks for a foundation... my back!

Deja Vu... mixing cement by hand, just like last year.

Our side trip this year was to the ocean city called Tela. It was a very small town, lots of tourists and beautiful weather. Many international tourists and seafood galore! We ate like kings, danced to Latin music, played poker, laid out, just relaxed after a long week of hard work. I never found any Cuban cigars to bring back as gifts... but I did buy some really cool bowls (I have an obsession with wooden bowls for some reason).

Our hotel was on the beach, look at that view!

Moe and I dancing some Bachata.

Gingros on the beach... I stayed in the shade!

Dressed up for going out to dinner and dancing.

Last night... poker and cigars. It was a 30 limpira buy in I knocked two people out and ended up with 128 Limpira (about 7 bucks).

Our last night... beautiful sunset bid us fairwell.

After a busy week in Albion on my return I am now in Chicago for the weekend with Novi. She taught me how to use her website (www.noggin.com) and that site rocks! I might jump on from work sometimes if I get bored! I loved it! Then we watched some TV, ate Mexican food and watched Chicken Little (I got her the DVD for this weekend). She taught me about her websites (www.noggin.com and www.nickjr.com) and all the games she plays online... the games were so cool and it is all free! Memory games, number and word matching, and just some fun ones. It was a great little short visit, next time I see her she will be five!

Playing a Dora game online, she is good at the memory game.

As soon as she saw I got her Chicken Little, she popped it into the DVD player.

Captain Crunch breakfast with papi.

She is big enough to carry her own bag now.

So now I am back... this week was very busy at Albion. I have some big projects going on, I am managing our Whos Who selection process and working on two big policy proposals for the board of trustees meeting in April. Not to mention that WRGLC is this weekend in San Francisco, and Greek Week is the week after! So there is a lot on my plate and I am only in the office for two days! Well I better get started.
- posted by Sam @ 8:16:00 PM